JANUARY 2004

When Rex Upton of Autobend Ltd, returned to Christchurch after attending the ESPA conference in Melbourne last May, which centred on the new Signature"(model specific) noise level regulation, little did he expect to be confronted with a similar, but even more draconian proposal by New Zealand's Land Transport Safety Authority (LTSA), as it was to become retrospective and include all in-service vehicles. With Rex's assistance a submission opposing the proposal, but recommending a workable alternative regulation favouring the exhaust aftermarket, was promptly lodged by ESPA. Rex also made submissions from his own companies.

In the first of his revived NZ UPDATE columns Rex reports on the development of the new regulation in New Zealand so far.

Industry members recently attended two LTSA meetings in Wellington regarding the proposed Vehicle Equipment Rule 32017, which a lot of media reports and police officers have wrongly indicated as being already law.

The LTSA has received so many submissions on Rule 32017 that it will NOT be introduced in its present wording, but we still need more submissions, so go to web site http://www.Itsa.govt.nz/consultation/vehicle-equipment/submission-form.html and lodge a Submission urgently.

The LTSA will be sending a new "info sheet ' to all Warrant of Fitness (WOF) inspectors with revised wording intended to put the emphasis on "noticeably and significantly louder" than would be expected, to counter the belief that a system must be "as original" i.e. OE parts.

While we accept there is no law on the type of muffler, it remains to be seen if the new info sheet that is to be circulated to WOF inspectors points out that stainless steel straight through mufflers are not illegal. A Warrant or Police check must be solely on the noise emitted!

The Police have been asked NOT to use the cheap, inaccurate decibel meters available from retail stores as they are not accurate and are in fact causing more confusion given guidelines for their use relate to drive-by tests when the Police are using static tests.

Medium Term:

The exhaust industry people that attended the meeting in Wellington are to produce "company policies" for a static test based on the Australian static tests, which specify approved standard and calibrated meters. For a standard car OUR policy will be 95 decibels, which is the same as the Jasmac parts on many imports.

All rear muffler jobs leaving our shops must be under 95 decibels and those in doubt, will need to be tested by trained staff under specific test procedures.

LTSA invited the exhaust industry people present at the meeting along with LTSA staff, Police and MTA representatives to form a working party, which will nut out the wording of the new vehicle Rule and test procedure that is workable for all involved.

Long Term:

The new static tests developed by industry will become law but the regulators will set the maximum decibel levels by vehicle type.

The Ministry of Transport (MoT) is working on future emission standards, which will require special "smog test stations" and the logical thing is to undertake future noise tests at these facilities.

It is' my bet that the current LTSA "Service Agents" that are the AA. VTNZ and On Road NZ will be given responsibility for these tests so we will end up with two levels of Warrant check. Who knows what the final legislation will be but at least it is now recognised that the removal of converters is a big contributor to the current noise problem.

The noise issue has now been handed over to the Ministry of Transport which has been instructed by the Minister to "develop an objective noise test' which can be introduced as part of our Warrant of Fitness test. However the industry must still be aware that some government agencies are still pushing to have ALL aftermarket exhaust systems be NO LOUDER than the original system fitted to the car at the factory!

A letter was recently sent to the Ministry of Transport outlining our concerns. I urge you to write to Mr Park or Paul Swain at the Ministry of Transport pushing the need to adopt a practical "static" test procedure and realistic noise emission levels.